CBK not offering details on the new buyers of Chase Bank

The Central Bank of Kenya yesterday declined to reveal the exact details of the proposed transaction between the troubled Chase Bank and State Bank of Mauritius.

CBK only confirmed it had received a non-binding offer from SBM Holdings Ltd for Chase Bank which is in receivership.

It added the non-binding offer includes the acquisition of certain assets and matched liabilities from Chase Bank, but could not reveal the amounts involved in the deal.

SBM also confirmed the deal is in the offing, but did not go into details. “The board of directors of SBM Holdings Ltd (SBMH) wishes to inform its shareholders and the public in general that the Central Bank of Kenya and the Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation have accepted the terms of a non-binding offer from SBMH whereby SBMH, through its subsidiary, SBM Bank (Kenya) Limited, will acquire the carved out assets and liabilities of Chase Bank (Kenya) Limited (In Receivership), a commercial bank headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya with a network of 62 branches across the country,” it said in a brief statement.

On Friday, CBK informed Chase Bank depositors SBM would take over 75 per cent of the Sh76 billion held in restricted accounts within Chase Bank. This will translate to Sh57 billion, with the remaining Sh19 billion being held by Chase Bank. The CBK was not however clear on what shareholding percentage SBM was acquiring at the bank and efforts to get more details from the banking sector regulator did not bear any fruit yesterday.

The proposed transaction will result into the transfer of a substantial number of staff and branches of the existing Chase Bank operations. This will in effect see Chase Bank becoming a very small institution holding Sh19 billion for depositors currently under moratorium. The CBK statement said non-moratorium depositors would continue to have full-unrestricted access to their funds but it is not clear if they will also be transferred to SBM.

Questions to the CBK on when the Sh19 billion left with Chase Bank will be available for depositors were not responded to by the time of going to press. The CBK did not also comment on how the new structure of the institution is going to be after the transaction.

“Through this potential acquisition, and combined with its other operations in Kenya, SBM will bring its experience and expertise from Mauritius and other markets, to further enhance competitiveness and the resilience of Kenya’s banking sector,” CBK said in its statement.

The statement said the non-binding offer is still subject to confirmatory due diligence and a binding contract. It said the Chase Bank depositors and shareholders are supportive of the offer after a meeting on Friday last week.